We had a really great few days in Tbilisi. What an awesome city, I’d thoroughly recommend it for a visit. It’s a good size to explore on foot, with something interesting to look at around every corner. And, of course, always something delicious to eat. Accordingly, we chilled, we walked, we ate.
Another country we’ve gone through fairly quickly. We were there just 11 days (which I know is more than most if you were to go there on a holiday). Anyway it wasn’t a country we had originally intended to go through as we were hoping to go through Turkmenistan and then Iran, but as with many of these things it was a blessing in disguise. It’s somewhere we knew little about and even though the visa was quite expensive (thanks to the UK reciprocating the expensive visa for Azeris) we were both glad to have the opportunity to go to a country that otherwise we would probably never think to go to.
After a glimmer of hope that the weather might improve, the rain returned while we were in Seki. We managed to get out for a wander around the town to look at the old palace and a church on the hill but by mid afternoon we were forced back to the Caravanserai by the rain. From our room we could hear it pouring down outside in the courtyard through the night. We waited around in the morning hoping it would ease off, but after our third coffee at 10:30 it was clear we’d need to get the waterproofs on and hit the road.
We had another whole day and night on the boat crossing the Caspian. After a long lie in and a walk around the ship there wasn’t too much to do other than chill in our cabin watching tv shows on the laptop. (Conveniently we’d downloaded series 2 of Narcos while waiting in Aktau!) On the second morning, we could see land off to our right (starboard!) side and a load of oil platforms in the sea around us. A few years ago, the boat would dock at the port right inside Baku, but now they use the ‘Baku International Seaport’ which is, inconveniently, 70km south of the city. By about 10 clock we were in port waiting to disembark. There was a bit of a wait but when we were led down to the passport check area, the truck drivers kindly let us go through first so we could get our bikes off before the trucks started offloading. Just before midday, we were through customs and back on the road. Country number 13.
Uzbekistan was definitely different to what I had expected. With lots of stories about the tight security and lots of bribery it gave us a different impression of what we experienced once we were there, and overall a much more positive one.
Pedalling West 